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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Two days in Mountain Cow Cave

Still alive! We spent Saturday and Sunday surveying in Mountain Cow Cave, located on the Hummingbird Highway in a national park. Quite amazingly beautiful. Gigantic rooms filled with big towers and formations everywhere. The size makes surveying and sketching the rooms challenging, as I am sometimes staning in plsces far from any walls. To sketch a cave passage it helps to be able to see the walls.

No pictures, for the moment, as it is hard to upload large files here.

We go to a different cave tomorrow (Monday) while on Tuesday we will take a day off to go sightseeing at the Tikal ruins in Guatamala.

One more thing: there is a chance I will still do my Tuesday appearance with John Batchelor. If we find the phone connection acceptable, I will go on live at 11 pm eastern. I will know for sure by tomorrow night.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

10 comments

  • Phill O

    Sounds interesting! And Fun!

  • Wayne

    “Journey to the Center of the Earth”
    https://youtu.be/WF8Bf1d_crk

    (We are trying to keep the Dog off the lawn, in your absence!)

  • Wayne

    Just reread the “Trapped inside a Cave for 10 hours” post by Mr. Z., recounting his 1996 adventure in New York.
    YOW-ZA! >highly recommend<

    http://behindtheblack.com/uncategorized/flood-in-mcfails-cave-new-york/

    The extent of my "caving-activities" consists of camping at Mammoth Cave National Park for a week (very impressed!), touring 3 salt-mines in Michigan, (we have them) & the "coal-mine" tour they have in the basement of the Museum of Science & Industry, in Chicago.

  • wodun

    The size makes surveying and sketching the rooms challenging

    You can draw too? That’s triple threat status.

  • Phill O

    He not only draws but is a cartographer. Can hardly wait for his book on the Chiricahau Chrystal Cave.

  • wodun

    Hmm, interesting.

    Mr Zimmerman, maps are a hot commodity right now. You should considering selling some as stand alone products.

  • One does not sell cave maps. The resource is too fragile. The maps are available to serious scientists and cavers, but for the general public to obtain them requires extra effort that is not simple to accomplish. This is not intended to exclude but to protect the cave and the public, as a person could get hurt entering these caves if they don’t know what they are doing.

  • wodun

    The maps are available to serious scientists and cavers

    There is a market for wall hangers. People collect maps of places they don’t go.

    Its something to consider if you can find ways to deal with your concerns, like popular caves open to the public, http://www.mountsthelens.com/ape-caves.html. Maybe just a spectacular chamber or small section could also have great appeal.

  • Wayne

    Steve:
    tangent–Mount St. Helens is one of THE most actively monitored volcanos in the world.

    Ref: Belize– I’d like to know Mr. Z’s impression of the Government of Belize. John McAfee is of the opinion it’s a Gangster State, but then again he’s been up to odd stuff the past 10 years or so….
    [McAfee is running in the Libertarian Party Primary this year.]

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